To:THE CHIEF OIL COMMITTEE OF THE SUPREME ECONOMIC COUNCIL

Written:Written on January 15, 1920Published:First published in 1965 inCollected Works, Fifth Ed., Vol. 51.

      Printed from the typewritten text, added to and signed by Lenin.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1975,

      Moscow,Volume 44,

      page331b.Translated:Clemens DuttTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Ienclose a cutting fromIzvestiaNo. 8(855) for 14/1. 20,
and ask to be informed whether you are aware of the facts
stated in this
paragraph,[2]and how far the figures given
in it may be regarded as trustworthy. What practical
measures are being taken in this
connection?[1]

V.Ulyanov(Lenin)Chairman, Council of People’s Commissars

[1]Thissentence is in Lenin’s handwriting.—Ed.

[2]Theparagraph inIzvestia, entitled “A Wealth of Oil Products”,
stated that the oilfields near Berchogur, in the neighbourhood of
Zhilaya Kosa, had available stocks amounting to 20 million
poods of oil, 300,000 poods of paraffin and 200,000 poods of
petrol. In addition, oil was gushing from four wells.